Good week

I said that next time I write I am sure to have had a much more eventful week, and thus it is!

Where to start...

Thursday
A very stimulating day. Mads visited the school and took us to see the special needs class at the neighbouring school, Naurei. We are all keen to help out when possible, because it will be a better opportunity to do more creative things like face painting and music-making than at Sekei. The kids have a variety of 'disabilities', that in England might not necessarily mean being separated from mainstream - down syndrome, autism and deafness are some.
In the afternoon we went to the UN! The countless trials for the Rwandan Genocide have been taking place in Arusha for 5 years, and due to last for 5 years more. We watched the defence of a Catholic Priest who gave shelter to two fugitives at his college. The question was whether he then organised their murder. I'm so glad I went - I think it could the basis for numerous stimulating discussions at university!

Friday
Nothing particularly eventful, but a good day's teaching. I did my first singing club, which was great fun, but not particularly harmonious! My xmas present from mum and dad was a very amusing little keyboard powered by a tube you blow down. The teachers in the staffroom were even more excited by it than the kids, and I had to promise to bring it in again on Monday for them to play!

Saturday
Our Valentine's Day party. I spring-cleaned the house, decorated, bought veg locally, and purified huge amounts of water while the others did a bigger shop nearby. I have to say, we put on a decent spread on a tight budget - pruscetta and salsa, guacamole, bucket-loads of toast, and a few crisps and marshmallows. We had a bonfire (with our rubbish - the only waste disposal method in Tanzania) which attracted lots of the cheeky kids.
In the evening, I spoke to our teacher and IT guru friend, Adrian, about swapping letters with his school (Hordle Walhampton near Lymington in the New Forest). More about this later...

Sunday
Utter bliss. The day was spent under a palm tree pool-side at a local hotel, having refreshing swims and eating black forest gateau. And there were fluffy towels! All this luxury only cost me around 8 pounds! Sunday is now officially holiday day :-)

Monday
I did a test of what we have covered so far. I thought the results were pretty bad - most got 4 out of 12 - but I showed them to some staff who were delighted, and said it was above average...oh dear! In my second lesson with 6A I introduced this exciting new letter-writing set up by writing them a letter from me that they had to read out. We will write the first letter to Hordle Walhampton's year 4 pupils altogether as a class. I plan to get the kids to draw lots of pictures etc in clubs this week, and I will take lots of photographs to send as a package to England.
Ooooh, in the afternoon I went to pick up my fabulous dress I have had made for me! It has endeared me to the elderly female population of Arusha hugely!

I am about to run out of time, I'm afraid, so will finish the post on Saturday. Lxxx